There's always the same process when radio tackles something already well known in a film version. You have to peel back the visuals you're familiar with, and temporarily discard them, otherwise the radio telling, however fine, won't let you conjure your own.

This was an issue with the Saturday Play: To Catch a Thief (Radio 4), David Dodge's 1952 novel made into the Alfred Hitchcock film starring Grace Kelly and Cary Grant. How to compete with that? Jean Buchanan's dramatisation for radio went for bold moves and quick impact, such as opening with a dramatic moment up-close: we hear hammering at a door as protagonist and former jewel thief John Robie flees the police.

Noticeable, too, was a focus on slivers of picture-painting description for landscape and characters. I liked the detail on Mrs Stevens, a wealthy woman in her 50s, dripping in diamonds and, Robie tells us, pretty, "apart from the tendency to be haphazard with her lipstick". You could see her then.

There was snazzy music, matching the twists of Robie's narration – slickly delivered by Jeff Harding with both heart and charm – and Sara Davies's direction delivered a glamorous thriller set on a Côte d'Azur seething with crime and corruption. It wasn't the same as Hitchcock's vision; it was different, and quite its own.